According to You
by EdibleNonsense
Summary: A quiet night at Kame House leads to a discussion about life and love. [Yamcha/Launch]


NOTE: This was another drabble I'm crossposting from Tumblr and AO3. This time I wrote it for my friends Sarah and Mei, who encouraged me to try my hand at multishipping. It's a short fic based on a song, and this was the one I got for this ship: "According to You"- Orianthi

* * *

"Oh, shit!" Her voice rang out in surprise.

"Hmm, what is it?" Yamcha craned his neck over to look at what she was reading, her fingers grasping the compact blue booklet. Launch was sitting in the living room, legs crossed in front of the television. Meanwhile, he was trying to not scald his hands while scraping at the noodles clinging to the bottom of the pot.

"That special is on tonight. Ya know, the one with the two spy movies back to back? Could've sworn it was next Tuesday, not today." Resting her chin on her curled knuckles, she sighed briefly. "Damn, wish the others weren't busy."

"Aww, yeah."

Yamcha nodded along with the reply, even though she couldn't see him. Kame House was unusually quiet today, what with Bulma off to deal with a Capsule Corp issue near her house, and Goku and Krillin and Roshi off to train for a week in the mountains at a nearby island. Roshi had briefly said something about the temperature on it being just tepid enough to not break a sweat while he was gathering every pair of swim bottoms he had from his room to stuff in his scuffmark-covered black suitcase. And Tien… he often seemed to flow in and out of the rickety house like the wind. One moment, he was milling about somewhere out of sight, and the next, he was behind you, sitting or standing in an empty spot and quietly observing everyone. Yamcha liked talking to the guy, but it was rather disconcerting to never quite know when he was going to show up.

This left just the two of them for once. Alone. Out of habit, he had whipped up a simple pot of soup for dinner and she had wolfed a bowl of it down, never one to refuse a free meal.

_At least I know she liked how it tasted,_ he thought wryly, _since I get the feeling she would probably let me know if she didn't…_

But it still made him think about what she was doing here. It wasn't like her to stick around for long if nothing was going on. Usually she would go searching for something more exciting.

Yamcha finished drying the pot and balanced it up in his hands to jam in the upper kitchen cabinet, his attention still split between the task and the noises coming from the other room. The television was playing some kind of… love ballad? He strained to hear the lyrics more clearly.

"What's on now?" he called out, half-jokingly, half-inquisitively. Almost immediately he heard the remote click and the channel change.

"Nothing. Just some… stupid show."

"Hey, wait, let me see! I feel like I remember that theme song from somewhere," he called out, darting into the main room of the house.

He thought he saw a second of hesitation flicker in her eyes before she flipped back to the previous channel. On-screen, a woman in a flowing red dress was slowly descending a spiral staircase, eyes flashing in the intense lighting of the shot. The song from earlier continued to play as the camera panned over to a man in a dark suit, his grin beaming from ear to ear.

"You've… watched this before?" Launch's voice sounded tentatively intrigued, if not sarcastic.

"Well! I, uhh—" Sputtering his answer out, he took a step back and rubbed the back of his head in a show of embarrassment. "It just happened to be on a few times after another series I liked. And it's so easy to get addicted!"

"It's fine, I understand," she replied coolly after a short pause, keeping her eyes on the screen.

Odd. He had definitely expected a bit more teasing from her about that particular revelation, but he decided not to press his luck. Hopping into a seat on the opposite end of the couch, he made himself comfortable, putting the pillow that usually served as a backrest on the ground. As he sat watching the couple on-screen reconcile via a tearful embrace, something occurred to him.

"Do you… want to watch this instead?"

"What?!" She snapped back almost instantly, her gaze staring him down.

"Only if you want!" _Maybe I read the signals wrong_, he thought with a cringe. But the way her eyes were locked onto the screen… the way she tilted her head just a bit… the way she had leaned back gently into her seat just a bit…

The room was quiet for a few heartbeats, and then he saw her attention turn back to the television set. "Sure," she mumbled, keeping her arms tucked under her chin.

Taking her words at face value, he contently turned back to the show. The couple was galavanting off to a beach vacation, apparently, from what he could make out. This must be one of the episodes he had missed! He knew there were some new ones out recently…

For a few minutes, they both sat silently, letting the scenes from the novella-like romance story be the center of attention while the cicadas outside chirped in the background. Interestingly, Yamcha noted that Launch didn't seem too put off by the sugar-sweet storyline. Hell, a character had just started playing a guitar and singing!

"Isn't this kind of cheesy?" Hoping to break up the lingering tension, Yamcha threw the words out there after the long silence.

"Mmh." She didn't take her eyes away from the screen.

"I don't think anyone actually does this. Like, in real life, you know?" He scratched his chin.

Shifting around just a tad in her seat, she mumbled something he almost couldn't catch. "Wish they did."

Did he hear her right? Yamcha turned just enough to catch a glimpse of her looking bitterly at the screen, arms still crossed.

"Do you mean-"

"Shit. Just forget it," she sighed with a huff, rolling her head back against the cushion behind her and tightly squeezing her eyes closed. Yamcha was at a loss for what to say for once. What the hell was she talking about? Was she just lamenting romance in general? Was there someone-

Oh.

Then, in a second, the pieces all fell into place and it clicked. Of course.

"Aww, hey. He'll come around. I-I mean, maybe he's just shy…"

She grunted once and looked down again, and for just a split second, he thought he saw a flash of sadness reflected back in her eyes. With a rough shrug of her shoulders, she finally replied, "It's whatever."

"You know, when Bulma and I would—"

"Yeah, because you two are such a great example," she muttered sarcastically into her arms.

"Hey! We're…" His voice trailed off as the memories of his and Bulma's last conversation rattled around in his brain. They had definitely exchanged some harsh words, but that's just how it was. Or at least, how they were, as a couple. Not exactly… stable. At least they could stay good friends throughout it all, year after year, but a nagging little thought in the back of mind sometimes whispered to him that maybe they should _only_ be friends.

"Anyway," he continued with an eye roll, shaking off the words. "When Bulma and I would… disagree, we would just wait a while and then try again. Maybe you gotta just ease off the gas for a bit and wait it out, you know? There's no rush."

Still keeping her eyes trained on the television, Launch still didn't meet his gaze.

"Hmm," she mumbled under her breath, seemingly mulling over something that she didn't want to share.

"And from what I can tell, he seems like the kind of guy who would appreciate taking it slow." Out of the corner of his vision, he noticed her head finally turn towards him. Buoyed by her unusually quiet attention being focused on him, he barreled on without thinking. "And just… you're always so enthusiastic and supportive! I mean, what kind of guy wouldn't want someone like that?"

"Oh. Thanks." Suddenly, she could mysteriously only focus on the ground, her eyebrows furrowed just enough to make him worry. Maybe he had gone a bit overboard with the compliments.

"I-It's no problem! I just had to say it." And he did. She may be aggressive and wild and even a bit confusing at times, but it didn't mean she wasn't a good friend to him and everyone else at Kame House. Part of him wondered what she, in turn, thought of him, but every cell in his body was telling him to just play it cool and not bring it up.

With a sigh, she slowly nodded. "Yeah… I'll take your advice. I guess."

Satisfied with the conversation's more positive direction, Yamcha relaxed his body language just a bit. But then, unbeknownst to him, she mumbled something even less audible, so quietly only she could hear.

"Just hope you're right."

* * *

If you've read this far, you may be interested in this Spotify playlist I slapped together, so here's the link (you have to type the rest of the link in yourself, only lets me copy this part):

/playlist/2rRrRseHjvTJolDzozQcSD?si=KkeDQvSOQXWhQ8L4fUAnGA

EDIT: For some reason, the last part of this got cut off! I reuploaded it and it should be fixed now. Sorry about that.


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